CM Punk in Danger of Joining Long List of Pro Wrestlers Who Failed in MMA

History says CM Punk will crash-land in the Octagon in his UFC debut.

Inexperienced, older pro wrestlers have entered the MMA world before. The result was often a swollen face, a bloody mat and a sound defeat.

Punk will be looking to avoid that fate on Saturday at UFC 203 when he goes up against fellow welterweight Mickey Gall. It will be the former WWE champion's first professional MMA fight, and most expect him to stumble.

As Damon Martin of Fox Sports noted, UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem talked about Punk's chances during a Los Angeles press event: "To me he's making a mistake. He doesn't know what he's getting himself into."

Bleacher Report Combat Sports Senior Writer Jonathan Snowden wrote of the match, "Based on the training footage that has emerged, it won't be pretty."

According to OddsShark, Bovada lists Punk as a 3-1 underdog; Westgate Las Vegas has his odds at 4-1.

Pro wrestlers have successfully transitioned from the squared circle to the cage, but those men have little in common with Punk. 

Brock Lesnar pops up first in many minds when thinking of wrestling-MMA crossover stars. There's only one Lesnar, though.

Lesnar was a dominant heavyweight college wrestler at the University of Minnesota. He's a beastly specimen who is blow-you-away powerful and surprisingly agile for a man his size.

He is the only man to win a UFC title, a WWE championship and an NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship.

Punk doesn't have an amateur wrestling background. He's not nearly as physically gifted as Lesnar. And like just about everyone else on the planet, he doesn't boast the raw strength that The Beast Incarnate does. 

TNA world heavyweight champ Bobby Lashley is a different species from Punk, as well.

Lashley's 14-2 MMA record is a result of his stout frame, his top-notch athleticism and his amateur wrestling background. The Dominator, like Lesnar, thrived on the mat in college, earning All-American status four times.

Those wrestlers are the anomalies. 

Largely, a late move from sports entertainment to combat sports is a recipe for embarrassment. It's not an issue of toughness, as so many contend, but of experience.

Had WWE Superstars like Sheamus, Baron Corbin and Apollo Crews spent years training in jiu-jistu rather than learning the craft of pro wrestling, they would be physically talented enough to have a shot at glory inside the Octagon. It's a herculean task, though, to pick up the violent sport so late in the game.

Punk is as inexperienced a fighter as UFC has seen.

He has no amateur MMA fights under his belt. He has only trained as a fighter full-time for the past two years. That sounds eerily familiar to the story of so many past wrestlers.

Bam Bam Bigelow, one of WWE's most agile big men, starred as a heel in the '90s, battling the likes of Bret Hart and Undertaker. He ventured into MMA in November 1996 at 35 years old.  

Competing under his real name, Scott Bigelow, the powerhouse faced Kimo Leopoldo for the short-lived U-Japan promotion. 

The train ran off the track for Bigelow seconds into the fight. Leopoldo quickly pushed him against the cage, mounted him and proceeded to issue a string of measured shots to the face.

After the one-sided contest, Bigelow stood bloodied, dizzied, abashed.

Tony Halme, who wrestled as the villainous Ludvig Borga for WWE in the early '90s, experienced similar sensations throughout his brief MMA career. 

As listed on Sherdog, Halme went 0-4 as a fighter. His lone UFC bout was a quick defeat by choke courtesy of the debuting Randy Couture in 1997. 

Even Halme's boxing background wasn't enough to combat his late entry into MMA.

Yuji Nagata, a former amateur wrestler and world champion for both New Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah, found himself flustered in his move to the MMA jungle.

A 33-year-old Nagata took on Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic in 2001. Two years later, he fell against Fedor Emelianenko. Each of his opponents pounded him into the mat with punches. Each match ended in defeat by TKO.

Nagata lasted a total of just one minute and 23 seconds in his MMA career, per Sherdog.

In 2002, famed high-flyer Jushin "Thunder" Liger (real name: Keiichi Yamada) tried his hand at MMA, too. At Pancrase Spirit 8, he clashed with Minoru Suzuki in a short, fruitless fight. 

Suzuki choked out Yamada with little effort. Writing for Bloody Elbow, Snowden described the match as "gaudy, reckless" and an "embarrassing showing."

Even one of the most rugged men to ever step into a wrestling ring found disappointment waiting for him in a world not his own.

"Dr. Death" Steve Williams, an All-American collegiate wrestler at University of Oklahoma and certified badass, waited until he was in his 40s to enter the sport of MMA. His one and only fight, a 2004 bout against Alexey Ignashov, lasted 23 seconds. A kick to the side of Dr. Death's head floored him. Ignashov overwhelmed with strikes until the referee called off the contest.

That's a familiar pattern. A number of wrestlers' MMA career ended at 0-1: those of Nathan Jones, Kid Kash, Taka Michinoku, etc.

Will Punk be the next added to that list? He has far more in common with Bigelow and Liger than Lashley and Lesnar. 

Better athletes have fallen before him. Amateur wrestlers and powerhouses jackknifed when stepping into MMA. Victory against Gall would be a victory against all odds for Punk, one defying a history of failures.